Hello. I’m Naoki. The project owner and designer of Wata Tokei.
I love modest-sized vintage watches. It was around the time I started participating in ocean swimming races as hobby during summer season, my journey collecting watch expanded to dive watches. As the journey turns to a voyage, I came across with a simple and stylish 1960s skin diver.
I was captivated by the beauty of its simple and beautiful shape, compact size made it versatile enough to be worn in any situation. After wearing it daily for years, I began to dream of reviving it by myself.
I have over 25 years of experience in the film and broadcast industry, and over 18 years running an IT and system integration service company for media and entertainment industry. However, I began my professional career in my early twenties working as a 3D animator and graphic designer in a television production company.
One day I began my attempt at watch design using 3D CAD to see if I could reproduce an average-sized skindiver watch with common Japanese automatic watch movements.
With only a few number of cross-section diagrams of other watches and specification drawings of the movements as reference, I was able to complete the basic shape in a few days. I felt a little sense of accomplishment, but at the same time, I heard my desire ignites in my creative mind to push the project to the ultimate level of perfection.
So I taught myself and deepened my knowledge of watch design, structure, and parts layout, and my long-held ambition started to be unleashed. Aiming to create the most beautiful skin diver and establish my own design style, I made countless prototypes, not only for the watch itself, but also for bracelets, small parts, and diver’s watch designs in various directions.
As I deepened my knowledge of watch design, structure, and component placement through self-study, my long-held ambition began to be unleashed. Aiming to create the most beautiful skindiver watch with my own unique design style, I developed my skills by making countless designs in various directions, including not only the watch body but also the bracelet, small components, and diver watch design.
I was deeply immersed in the life of watch design for 4 months. I spent my days facing design data waking up every few hours in the middle of the night and trying out new ideas.
I think it’s common for people who have had a career path that involved creative work to sometimes miss for that work. I felt bliss for the first time in a long time as I poured my passion into my work, thinking about my watch design 24 hours a day.